Data logging and organizing machine

ABSTRACT

A data logging and organizing machine which obviates the necessity for a traditional type computer, computer programmer, keypunch machine, and keypunch operator. Data is entered directly into the machine by an employee from his time card through a combination of automatic and manual processes, stored on an inexpensive tape cartridge, and made availabe according to any of a number of desired classifications or criteria. The machine itself sequentially provides information as to its operation so that almost any lay person can quickly enter and retrieve data simply by selecting a category and pressing buttons in accordance with preprogrammed instructions. A search of the tape is accordingly executed and all data corresponding to the category chosen is retrieved and printed out by a conventional printer.

United States Patent 1191 Reilly et a1.

MACHINE [76] Inventors:

Filed:

Appl. No.:

US. Cl

DATA LOGGING AND ORGANIZING Richard J. Reilly, 1759 Venus; Glen L.Merrill, 964 Cannon, both of St. Paul, Minn. 55112 June 19, 1972 235/61.9 R, 235/6l.7 I3, 235/61.l2 M,340/l52 Int. Cl G06k l/20, 606k 19/08,H04q 5/02 Field of Search... 235/619 R, 61.7 B, 61.11 D,

235/6l.12 M, 61.7 R; 340/149 A, 172.5

Wolowitz 235/61 .12 Ayres 235/6l.l2

Primary Examiner-Dardaryl W. Cook Assistant Examiner-Robert M. KilgoreAttorney, Agent, or Firm-Neil B. Schulte [5 7] ABSTRACT A data loggingand organizing machine which obviates the necessity for a traditionaltype computer, computer programmer, keypunch machine, and keypunchoperator. Data is entered directly into the machine by an employee fromhis time card through a combination of automatic and manual processes,stored on an inexpensive tape cartridge, and made availabe accord- [5 6]References Cited ing to any of a number of desired classifications orcri- UNITED STATES PATENTS teria. The machine itself sequentiallyprovides infor- 3 679 875 7/1972 Rawson 235/61 7 R mation as to itsoperation so that almost any lay per- 3IIZIZTS9 2/1964 jl'sj 235/61 '6 Ason can quickly enter and retrieve datasimply by se- 3,237,164 2/1966Evans 340/147 lectmg a category and pressing buttons 1n accordance3,699,533 10/1972 Hunter 340/1725 with preprogrammed instructions- ASearch Of the 3,705,384 12/1972 Wahlberg 340/149 tape is accordinglyexecuted and all data correspond- 3,559,175 l/1971 Pomeroy... 340/152ing to the category chosen is retrieved and printed out 3,602,695 8/1971BOSS 235/61] B by a conventional printer 3,035,764 5/l962 Beman 235/619R 3,136,886 6/1964 Meyers 235/619 R 2 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures 7o 71 7273 74 75 29 28 1 A a 1) a 1, a

11 76 T 27 T 1 /77 5 :5; i ii I1 I 7 78 79 4 PM; -80 H 2 J CLEAR 6 CLEAR68 RECORD 56 58 6O 0 We 36 (K SELECT 33 34 37 38 39 CHECK OJ CHECK O @2384 1 8 E TYPE 42 INSERT O 1 760 o a NsERT CARD 32 I 7 8 9 43 ENTER CARD9 62 4 69 4 5 6 DATA 4' E W PRINT 0 ET I 2 3 RECORDQ B 66 ERROR 6T a O 1L U ERRoRQ @651 J wI'IIiIIIIiIIIPIes.IIII 1180-6705 I SHEET '1 0F 4 I Il 24 25 26 IDENTIFICATION EXPENSE To FINISH ,1 TASK DATE EMP. M. HRSPURCH.- W T PURCH.

l5 I28 d I22 Fly 3 f 29 H1) I30 GATE |4\, GATE -52 ,/Is READER INTERFACELIE F 9 d F/ g. a

; I I I,IIPII 23 MI 3; 806; 705

SHLU 3 UP 4 READER KEYBOARD SWITCHES LIGHTS 76- BI,

INPuT ENCODER 54 6O 76A-8IA, 43, 84

DRIVER r82 r90 LIGHTS FIELD 84 DATA Buss SELECTOR 70- 75, 4|

85 FIELD AND FIELD AND DATA CHXEX$ER COUNTER COUNTER r I TAPE 83COMPARATOR GATE SWITCH CONTROL J, i TIMING TAPE MAIN MEMO Y GATLEMEMORY. 45 89 9| -9.2 LIGHT [(22 0'4N /-|O| 69' '06 COMPARATOR GATESW'TCH g I05 CHECK e PARAMETER SUM MEMORY REGISTER L EMPT CHARACTERCOUNTER OR GATE GATE PRINTER Izo I03 TMEF-ITEDAPR231974 SHEET [1F 4 II229 HO\ K READER READER ERROR HEAD INTERFACE CHECK DATA LIGHT "g BUSS 0II4 H6 7 '7 KEYBOARD 7X 4 BUFFER 7 DIGIT DISPLAY MEMORY DECODER/DRIVERFIELD AND 85 DATA SELECT \IJIS T DlGlT CHARACTER GATE I DISPLAY COUNTERI DATA BUSS 82 LIGHTS 33-39 N Fig. 7

DATA LOGGING AND ORGANIZING MACHINE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION It iscommon practice today to provide assistance to first line projectmanagers with computers that compile .data for the project manager as tohow much time and money is being spent by various individuals under hisdirection on various projects with which he is concerned. Information isalso compiled on estimates of how long it may take to complete aproject, the amount of money that may yet have to be spent, theinventory that is consumed, the number of man hours devoted to theproject, and various other categories of data. It is quite .difficultfor the manager himself to correlate all this information intomeaningful categories and, as a consequence, many corporations have usedtheir computers to organize and display this data in a helpful manner.However, the conventional computer requires that all of the informationbe first collected and then reduced to standard type inputs adaptable tothe particular computer. This requires a keypunch machine and a trained,highly skilled, and very expensive employee to operate the keypunchmachine. In addition, the computer frequently requires a professionalprogrammer to yield the desired information. It is, thus, very expensiveto provide these functions. In fact, the expense is certainly out of therealm of practicability for relatively small companies with a limitednumber of employees. Even with large companies, that can afford thecomputers, problems are encountered since the very expensive computersare used first to perform more urgent functions such as billing,accounting, etc., and it is not unknown to have delays of as much as 4to 6 weeks in retrieving this management data. Clearly, after 4 to 6weeks the information originally compiled and assembled is no longer ofany real use to the project manager in assessing the current situation.Managers need information immediately upon its submittal. Yet mostproject managers cannot afford to purchase highly complicated computersand the associated keypunch services to achieve only this end. Ourinvention is intended to close this information gap by providing arelatively inexpensive machine which can be used both by smallcompanies, without computers, and by large companies, in addition totheir computers, to provide immediate project management information inclear and concise form so that intelligent decisions can be made andproblems can be met beforehand, thus speeding the completion andimproving the efficiency of any given project.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Briefly, my invention contemplates making useof two important factors common to business today to provide a solutionto the above described problems. The first factor involves the fact thatin most projects which are partly or wholly funded by the government, awritten record of time, expenditures, and allocation of efforts isrequired. Besides the government requirement, it is a common practicethroughout industry to provide employees with time cards which they fillout, typically, at the end of each week. Our invention contemplates thatsince these written time cards are being provided anyway they could beutilized toassemble additional information for project management. Thus,our invention provides a modified type of time card which willincorporate all of this information. To use this time card each employeeis provided with a small plasticidentification card which has his namewritten in English thereon and also encoded thereon is a standard codeformat. He is also provided with a similarly prepared plastic task cardcarrying information on an assigned task, which he may utilize as longas he is working on a particular project. At the end of a day or week,when the employee fills out his time card indicating the amount of timeand money he has expended on any individual task, he simply inserts histime card along with his plastic identification, and task cards in animprinter similar to the type commonly used for credit card operations.This imprinter serves to imprint the employees name, the data and thetask identification on his time card, both in English characters and ina standard machine readable code. The date is imprinted by means of aplastic card already inserted in the imprinting machine. He thenmanually enters the data on the time card in one of six differentcategories. Each category relates to a specific grouping of information.More or less than six categories could be used if desired although sixhave been chosen in the preferred embodiment. The'employee prepares aseparate time card representing his efforts expended for each of thevarious projects to which he is assigned. All of these imprinted cards,from the various employees, are then inserted into the machine proposedby the present invention. This machine is designed to automatically readthe encoded data regarding the employee, date, and task and, at the sametime, to permit the time and money expenditure data to be manuallyentered on a keyboard. This information is all stored on an inexpen sivetape cassette. It is at this point that the second factor can be pointedout with respect to the design of our invention. Since the machine isnot required to do any other sophisticated computer operations such asbilling or accounting it can be, relatively speaking, very slow inretrieving data from memory. It is this factor which permits a veryinexpensive machine to be designed using a tape cassette for a memory.

A manager can retrieve data from the tape cassette memory by simplyoperating the machine in the printout mode and entering another cardsimilar to the time card with information regarding the task or theemployee or the date, or any combination of these and the machine willreturn all data entered to that point which matches this input card. Inthe alternative he can insert a card with, for example, the employeeidentification omitted and the machine will return data for allemployees. This is true because the machine is designed to interpetblank entries as a request for all data. Therefore, if a card is enteredwhich is blank as to date, task, and employee the machine will returnall the data it has on tape.

The advantages of a system of this type are numerous. No programmer isrequired. The physically large computer and keypunch machines areeliminated. The machine of our invention is so compact that it can bemounted on a table top immediately convenient to the management staff.It is not necessary to have a highly trained keypunch employee to reduceall the data to cards which the machine can accept since the machineprovides its own instructions on operations, thus, making it so simpleto operate that most any lay person including the employees themselvescan enter their own time card data. Data from the identifying plasticcards, which indicate the task, date and the employees name can be usedto imprint a time card which can be run through the machine once, toverify correct informa tion content on the plastic card. Once verified,the plastic cards may be used over and over to imprint time cards and anerror is never introduced. This is to be contrasted with the situationin which all of the data must be repeatedly translated by means of akeypunch operator permitting the possibility of error in every entry.Another advantage of the system is that it insures that all the variousprojects have complete and accurate representations of the amount ofexpenditure of time and money for that project alone. This is madepossible by the close control of the plastic cards identifying the task.Without the proper card no one can make a charge to a project. Absolutesecurity can be provided by having the project manager hand out the taskcards only in approved situations wherein the proper data is beingentered. This eliminates a problem common throughout business operationstoday wherein expenditures of time are casually switched about to makebudgets balance and to cover up improper activities. The system of ourinvention can be used to immediately identify the particular individualperforming such a misrepresentation so that no intervening passage offour to six weeks obscures the true situation. The speed with which thedata is returned is of utmost importance. Approximately 1,300 employeereports may be stored on one side of a tape cassette cartridge which canbe completely searched in about 90 seconds. Thus, retrieval speed isultimately limited by the speed of the printing device utilized with thesystem. If the least expensive printer available is used, the typicalprinting time is 6 seconds per record and a print-out of data on aparticular project or employee is normally completed in 2 to 3 minutes.A manager may choose to find how much money was spent by a particularperson or on a particular project. He may want to know the number of manhours which have been estimated it will take to complete a certainproject. He can obtain all this data without waiting for it to bereduced and processed by a computer and without having to wait for themore urgent operations to be completed. The cost savings are, of course,tremendous. It has been found that the cost of the entire system of thisinvention is actually less than the keypunch machine itself not tomention the large cost of a computer. Many more advantages are inherentin the system of this invention but they will be discussed later withrespect to the detailed description. It may be seen at this point thatit is an object of this invention to provide an improved informationlogging and retrieving system which can be used to provide immediatebusiness management information at an extremely low cost. Furtherobjects and advantages will become apparent upon reading the followingdetailed description and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 4 is a generally pictorial viewshowing the front panel of the present invention to facilitate inunderstanding the operation of the machine.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing generally the data flow circuit ofthe present invention.

FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 show in greater detail some portions of the circuit ofFIG. 5.

FIG. 8 shows how two of the reader head sensors are slightly displacedto assist in achieving proper entry of the data.

FIG. 9 shows the optical reader circuitry that utilizes the displacedsensors.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In FIG. 1 the format of the timecard 10 is pictorially described. In section 11 of the card,identification is provided by imprinting thereon with a plastic card thename of the employee, the date and the particular task with which he isdealing. Each employee has assigned to him a plastic card 12 whichidentifies him personally. Installed in the imprinting machine is asmall plastic card 13 which provides the date. A task card 14 is alsogiven the employee against which he may make charges for individualprojects. As mentioned before this task card may be kept until the endof a given project or it may be allowed out to the employee only when heis filling out his time card. Various arrangements are possibledepending upon the users accounting system and the degree of securitydesired.

In FIG. 3 an edge view of one of these plastic cards is provided. Thecard 14 has a small embossed aluminum strip 15 glued or otherwiseaffixed thereto which serves to print out the task in a written languagesuch as English-The card itself also has a number of plastic risers 16formed thereon in a certain pattern designed to represent, in code, thesame information presented on the aluminum embossing strip 15. In thepreferred embodiment, this code language has been chosen to be amodified American Standard Code (ASCII). In FIG. 2 it may be seen thatcard 10 is provided with a carbon paper 17 on the top surface thereof.The plastic cards 12, 13 and 14 are positioned immediately adjacent thetime card. The plastic cards and the time card are inserted in animprinting machine of the type commonly used with credit cards and theinformation is impressed onto the time card 10 to produce a pattern suchas shown in FIG. 1.

Referring to FIG. 1, in identification area 1 1, the data is imprintedon the card at location 18 in English and at location 19 in code. Theparticular individual is indicated at location 20 in English and atlocation 21 in code. The task is indicated at location 22 in English andlocation 23 in code. The time card includes three other categories aswell. Zone 24 covers actual expenditures of time and money that havetaken place. Zone 25 involves estimates of how long and how much work itwill take to finish the job in weeks and man weeks and further how muchmoney is anticipated will be required. Zone 26 provides space to enter adate. Arranged vertically along the left hand side of the card it may beseen that six different categories of information may be provided. Thisnumber has been chosen as being most desirable in the preferredembodiment but it should be understood that additional categories couldbe provided, as well, simply by expanding the format of the card.Category 1 relates to actual money expenditures only. As a consequencethe remaining areas are blanked out as shown so that if an employeewishes to indicate how much money he has spent on a particular projecthe simply fills out category 1. If he spent 361 dollars on March 14 heshows this by entering 361 as shown and indicates that it was spent onthe date 3-l 4. Another dating system can be used for the last columnwherein the number of the week and the day in the week are used. Forexample, Thursday of the last week of the year could be designated as4-52 or 4-0l depending on which way the weeks are numbered. Such asystem never requires over a three digit number. This is the totalamount of information that would go on a single time card. If theemployee wishes to indicate how much time he has devoted to a particularproject he would prepare another card and fill in data for category 3under the column man hours and'the date on which they were performed. Tomake an estimate of how long it might take to complete a project,category 6 would be completed indicating the man weeks, the weeks, andthe amount of money it is anticipated will be necessary 'to finish bythe date indicated in the last column under Zone 26. To provide all ofthe data simultaneously, a category 5 card would be completed. To storethis information the time card would then be processed by the machinewhose front panel is shown in FIG. 4.

The machine of FIG. 4 is designed to be simple and self guiding so thatmost any person can operate it including the employee who prepares hisown time card with'the information described earlier. This arrangementeliminates the necessity of a special, highly trained keypunch operator.The operation of the machine is as follows. A .power switch 27 isactivated to turn the machine on. This operation illuminates a light 82indicating to the operator to clear the record section by pushing button52. When the operator pushes button 52 he sets all of the logiccircuitry of the machine in condition to record information. At the sametime button 52 activates a light 83 which instructs him to select thecategory or type of check that he is entering. In the case shown in FIG.1 the information is entered in category 1 or check type 1 andconsequently the operator would press button 55 which is the buttonindicating the check type 1. Button 55 activates a light source 76aunderneath the 1 indicating his selection and also illuminates a lightsource 76 above the card reading portion indicating the location on thetime card of category or check type 1. Button 55 also activates a light84 (as do all the buttons 55 to 60) instructing the operator to insertthe card. In addition, button 55 starts an electric motor which powersan automatic card traversing system. The card is inserted into the rightside of a slot or guideway 28 and underneath the optical card reader 29.The electric card reader motor carries the card into guide slot 28 in amanner well known to those skilled in the art. The card is carriedunderneath optical reader 29 and across in the direction of arrow 30 toa position part way underneath housing 31. At this point in time thecard stops. The design of the machine is such that the frame formed byhousing 31, reader 29, and the top and bottom of guide channel 28exposes just the right hand zones of the cards 24, 25 and 26. Theinformation regarding the date, the employee, and the task have beenalready automatically entered into an electronic memory by opticalreader 29 which senses the information in areas 19, 21 and 23 of thetime card. Since the check type 1 has been selected a light 71 isactivated by the logic circuits of the machine. Light 71 is directlyabove the column wherein there is information written in regarding thepurchases of $36l .00. As the card comes to a stop between'housing 31and reader 29 a light 32 comes on instructing the operator to enter thedata. In response to this indication the operator notes thecorresponding intersection indicated by lights 76 and 71 and knowsthereby that he is suppose to enter the data from that position. Seeing361 he would punch 361 on the keyboard 40. As he does the number 361appears in the window 50. Window 50 includes a seven digit display whichis large enough to accommodate any of the spaces shown on the time card.In this particular case seven digits could be accommodated and thereforeall seven of the lights 33 through 39 would be on indicating that thiswas the case. However, only three digits are entered since that is theactual number being dealt with. Upon completing the number the operatorpushes button 62 and the number 361 is directed into the electronicmemory. Button 62 also sequences lights 75. But since lights 70 arecontrolled by logic circuits some lights are skipped and light 75 comeson. Light 75 indicates that information should be entered from the lastcolumn. The operator punches the numbers 3 14 as he sees them on thecard and these numbers appear on the seven digit display 50. This timeonly three digits can be entered and therefore only lights 37, 38 and 39are on indicating that this is the case. Once the number is displayeddata may be put into the electronic memory by pushing button 62 again.Since all of the information for check type 1 has now been entered intothe electronic memory record light 41 comes on indicating that theinformation should be recorded. Responding to this instruction theoperator pushes button 64 which causes all of the recorded informationin the memory to be transferred to a small, cassette-type, tape deckwhere it is stored for future reference. At the same time the cardreader motor starts and time card 10 continues on in the direction ofarrow 30, underneath housing 31,

and into a storage bin below where it may no longer be altered orchanged by the employee. This providesthe permanent written recordrequired by many businesses and by the government. A parity check isdone on the turned. If, at any time, the operator suspects an error' inhis entry procedure, he may push button 65 to retrieve the card from themachine and cancel the input of data.

In another example of how data would be entered one might consider acheck type 5 entry. In this case the card would be prepared as beforeutilizing the three plastic cards to indicate the task, employee,and'the date. Since the information is to be in check 5 which is an allencompassing category information is entered in all of the zones 24, 25and 26. It should be noted that Zone 24 comprises two numbered entrieswhich are referred to herein as fields. Zone 25 comprises three entriesor three fields and Zone 27 comprises a single entry or field. Thus, inall six entries or numbers can be provided in six fields in check type5.- Consequently, after the machine has been cleared with button 52 theemployee entering the data for check type 5 would press button 59 in thedrawing which would activate lights 80, a and 84. After inserting thecard in response to the indication on light 84 lights 70 and 80 wouldindicate that data should be entered from column 1 row 5 relating to manhours. After that data is entered, a light 71 would come on indicatingthat the data should be entered from the second field row 5 relating topurchases. After that data has been entered, light 72 would comeindicating that the number of man weeks to finish as shown in the fieldthree should be entered. This process would continue through lights 73,

74 and 75 and at the end of the seuqence the record light 41 would comeon indicating that button 64 should be pushed to transfer all of theentered data into the main tape memory.

It is contemplated that each individual employee would prepare a seriesof cards representing his endeavors for the week, or the day, as thecase may be, and enter then himself into the machine. It is, howeverpossible that a single secretary could have the responsibility of makingthese entries after she gathered together all of the time cards.

When all of the information has been inserted the supervisor or projectmanager can now get an organized print-out of all of this information bya simple reverse process. Firstly he prepares a time card similar to theones upon which data is entered. The machine operates according to amatching principle so that if he is interested in a particular task hemay recover all entries relating to that task simply by inserting aplastic card identifying the task and imprinting it onto a time card.When this time card is inserted in the slot and the print sequence isfollowed the machine is connected to a standard printer so as to printout all entries relating to that task. If in fact he wants all of theentries performed by an individual employee on a particular task hewould make an entry which would identify both the employee and the task.If he should want only those entries relating to a particular employeeworking on a particular task on a particular day he would enter allthree of these types of information. In the alternative, the supervisorcan enter a card which is blank in one of the three areas (i.e., task)and the machine will print out all entries in that area (i.e., all thedifferent tasks). He can run a check in any of the six differentcategories by pressing the appropriate button on the face of themachine.

The operation would be as follows. The manager would first press button68 which would clear the entire logic circuitry of the machine andprepare it for the print out function. A light 42 activated by button 68would come on indicating to him that he should select the check typethat he prefers. To select the check type he would press one of the samebuttons 55 through 60 utilized during the recording phase. For example,if he wishes to run a number 1 check he would press button 55. He wouldpush button 54 in order to obtain any check type which may have beenentered. It in essence tells the machine to ignore the check types inthe comparison so it only compares on task, date, employee or anycombination thereof. A light source 43 then comes on indicating to himto insert the card. He would insert the card from the right underneathoptical reader 29 as before. The reader 29 would read the informationregarding the task and/or the employee and/or the day and enter thisinformation into the same electronic memory as used with respect to therecording phase. A light 44 now indicates to the manager that he shouldactivate the print out phase. He does this by pressing a lected. In timethe information regarding the 361 dollar expenditure on March 14th isproduced. If during the course of the week other card entries had beenmade regarding other expenditures on this task they would also belisted. Button 67 and light 45 operate in the same way as described withrespect to light 66 and button to indicate a card reading error of somesort and permit the print-out generating card to be withdrawn. In FIG. 5a schematic drawing of the circuitry of the present invention is shown.

FIG. 5 indicates that the data input comprises both a reader input and akeyboard encoder and driver 81. Data from both of these sources istransmitted to a data buss 82. From data buss 82 the information isprocessed by a field and data character counter 85. Field and datacharacter counter may comprise shift registers operable to accept datacharacters in sequence and count up to the number of charactersnecessary to comprise each successive field in a manner well known tothose skilled in the computer sciences. Counter 85 keeps track of thenumber of data characters to determine which particular field ofinformation is being dealt with and, in turn, transfers the data toanother shift register in counter 85 which keeps track of the individualfields. A timing circuit 83 simultaneously drives solid state electronicmain memory 89 and the field and memory character counter 84insynchronism. Main memory 89 is of the recycling memory variety wellknown to those skilled in the art and may comprise, for example, anintegrated circuit of the type produced by National Semi-ConductorCompany and identified by the No. MM5006. The rate of cycling of mainmemory 89 is controlled by timing means 83. Likewise the rate of cyclingof field and memory character counter 84 is syncronized with the mainmemory.- The output of the field and memory character counter 84 iscompared by a comparator 86 to the output from field and data charactercounter 85. Whenever the accumulated count on counter 85 matches theaccumulated count on counter 84 the comparator 86 operates a gate 87 togate the data characters into main memory 89 from counter 85 where theyare momentarily present. It is of course important that each characterbe stored in the main memory in its proper position. Consequently, onlywhen the data count or position in counter 85 corresponds with the datacharacter count or position in counter 84 will comparator 86 allow thatcharacter to pass through to be stored in main memory 89. Referring backmomentarily to FIG. 1 it should be noted that many of the fields are notutilized in the different check types. It is therefore important to keepthe count in counter 85 progressing during the blank fields even thoughno data is present and also prevent data from being stored in the mainmemory during that interval. This is accomplished by a field selector 90which operates in response to check type selector switches 54 through 60to disable the passage of data through counter 85 for certain selectperiods corresponding to those blank spaces on the time card 10. Fieldselector 90 may comprise a write enable diode matrix constructedaccording to principles well known to those skilled in the art and istherefore not described in detail in this application. When the recordbutton 64 is pushed a gate 91 is activated allowing the recycling datain main memory 89 to be transferred therethrough to the tape deck 92.Button 64 also activates tape control circuitry 93 which moves the tapeforward in a cordinated manner according to principles well known tothose skilled in the art. Tape transport mechanisms of this type arewell known in the computer arts and therefore are not described ingreater detail here.

In order to make a search of the available data a similar type of timecard is entered in the machine having data on it corresponding to theinformation which is to be matched. This information is recorded by thereader input 80 through data buss 82 and cycled into main memory 89 inexactly the same fashion as described with respect to the recordingfunction. Button 69 activates a gate 101 which transfers the informationfrom main memory 89 into a parameter memory 100. Parameter memory 100 issimilar to main memory 89 and is of the recycling type driven by timingmeans 83 in synchronism with main memory 89. However, parameter memory100 may be made from a substantially smaller integrated circuit since itneed handle only the address information printed in zones 19, 21 and 23of the time card. When the print button 69 is pressed tape control 93 isagain activated so as to rewind and playback memory tape deck 92 andtransfer information through a lead 94 to the now empty main memory 89.The address information is now recycled in parameter memory 100 whilethe information originally stored on tape 92 has been entered into mainmemory 89 where it is also recycling. The data from memories 100 and 89are transferred by means of a pair of leads 105 and 104 to a comparator102. If a comparison is made indicating that the address informationfrom the tape compares exactly to the address information in theparameter memory the comparator 102 activates, through an OR gate 122, agate 120 which allows data from main memory 89 to pass to a conventionalcomputer printout machine 103 which prints the information presently inthe main memory.

Since the data logging machine is intended to respond to either an exactmatch or a blank entry on the card inserted for print-out purposes asecondary circuit is provided to detect this blank entry condition. Theaddress information recycling in parameter memory 100 is directed to anempty character counter 124. Each field is preceded by a begin record"character and completed with an end of record character. Counter 124 isoperable to recognize these characters in a manner well known to the artand determine the number of empty characters therebetween. If all thecharacters are empty indicating a card with a blank code counter 124operates through OR gate 122 to open gate 120 thus allowing all data topass from main memory 89 to printer 103 which data corresponds insequence to the desired data. Consequently, if the print-out card isleft blank in the task area all task information is gated provided thedate, and employee information correspond. If the task and employee areomitted only the date need i be imprinted on the card to retrieve alltask data for all employees on that data and if no information is on thecard at all, everything on the tape memory, transferred to the mainmemory, is printed out and the total data is retrieved.

If no match is made and no blank areas are present on the time card togate data, tape control 93 allows the tape 92 to advance progressivelythrough successive increments and transfer successive blocks ofinformation (corresponding to other time card entries) onto main memory89 for comparison with the data in the parameter memory. A check sumregister 106 compares the total amount of data released from the memories to a predetermined amount and any deviation from that amount isused to trigger light 45 indicating an error of some sort. Seeing thisthe operator would retrieve the card with button 67.

Referring to the front panel as shown in FIG. 4 each of the sequentialoperational lights would be controlled either by the switch in the stepimmediately before it or by the completion of the task immediatelybefore it. The light source 42 indicating the selection of check type orthe light source 83 making the same indication would be activated by theoperation of clearing switches 68 and 52. Clearing switches 68 and 52themselves would operate in a manner well known to those skilled in theart to clear all of the logic circuitry to a given beginning'state.Switch 68 would of course clear them to a beginning state correspondingto the print mode whereas switch 52 would clear it to a beginning statecorresponding to the record mode. The insert card light 43 would operatein response to the activation of one of the switches 54 through 60 andwould be deactivated by the reception of the correct amount of opticalinformation in reader 29 as determined by counter 85. Light 44indicating readiness to print out would be activated by the completionof the reception of data from optical reader 29. Switches 67 and 65 areconnected to the motor control mechanism in a manner well known to thoseskilled in the art to back the card out of slot 28. Light source 32indicating that data should be entered operates in response to a fullload of data as indicated by field and data character counter In FIG. 6optical reader input is shown in greater detail. It may be seen thatreader head 29 is connected to a reader interface 110 of constructionwell known in the art. Reader interface 110 passes the information todata buss 82. A parity error check is also conducted by an error checkcircuit 112 in the conventional manner and if an error is discovered theinformation is used to illuminate light 66 and back the card out of themachine.

The keyboard encoder and driver 81 is shown in greater detail in FIG. 7.The keyboard 40 output is directed to a 7 X 4 buffer memory 114 and fromthereto the seven digit display decoder driver 116 which operhead ismanufactured in such a way as to produce a' slight offset in the top andbottom sensors for each character in the code. This offset amounts to aslight movement to the left by a distance d for the top sensor and asmall offset to the right by a distance d for the bottom sensor. In thepreferred embodiment d has been chosen to be about one-fourth of thediameter of the dots on time card 10. The top and bottom sensor compriseindicators which serve to insure that the optical reader 29 is properlyviewing the intermediate seven dots when date is accepted. In FIG. 9 itmay be seen that optical reader 29 utilizes nine sensors which couldcomprise nine phototransistors 120 128 to sense the absence or presenceof a dot in a manner well known to those skilled in the art. In thepreferred embodiment of this invention the top and bottomphototransistors which are offset have their outputs connected to an ANDgate 130. AND gate 130 has an output connected to a second gate 132which controls and gates all of the outputs from the remainingphototransistors to the reader interface 110. Since the top and bottomsensors are intentionally displaced slightly left and slightly right theonly time data is accepted from the remaining dot locations is at thepoint in time during which both the top and bottom dots are providinginputs to offset sensors 120 and 128. Only under this condition is gate130 activated so as to pass this data from the remainingphototransistors through gate 132. This arrangement insures that slightmisregistrations of the remaining seven dot locations will not cause amisreading of the character represented by the column. The slightdisplacement of the top and bottom sensors insures that all of theintermediate dots will be properly aligned with the other sensors beforea signal is passed to reader interface 110.

It may thus be seen that we have provided apparatus wherein data can belogged and retrieved easily and cheaply by a compact machine. To ourknowledge no prior art machines are available which can operate asdescribed herein to accept random inputs of data, organize it, andsearch and select out data according to predetermined categories withoutthe necessity of keypunch operators and computer programmers. Also, weknow of no prior art machines which can work with such a simple andinexpensive tape memory and be applicable to so many different types ofdata and task including project expense and time management andinventory management.

Furthermore, the prior art includes no machines which will interpretblank entries as a kind of data representing all types of data normallyin the space where the blank entry is discovered and print out all thedata in response thereto, Thus, in our invention data which willgenerate a successful comparison can be defined as including bothregular characters and blank entries.

I claim:

1. A data logging and organizing machine operable to accept data from acard which has address information characters printed in writtenlanguage and in machine readable encoded dot patterns on one portionthereof and numerical hand entered data on another portion and furtheroperable to return that data in organized categories selected by theoperator comprising in combination:

data accepting means comprising an optical reader adapted toautomatically record said address information characters and keyboardinput connected to feed data in with said address information;

memory storage means comprising a main electronic recycling type memorycoupled to a final permanent tape memory so as to transfer data thereto,

said memory storage means connected to said data accepting means;

a tape control circuit operable to return the data recorded on the tapeback into said main memory;

a parameter memory connected to said main memory to accept datatherefrom in response to the operation of said tape control circuit;

a printing means;

comparing means comprising a comparator connected to said main andparameter memories so as to compare address information charactersin thetwo memories and also connected to a gating means between said mainmemory and said printing means so as to gate data from said-main memoryinto said printing means when the address characters do not disagreewith the corresponding address characters in the parameter memory;

sequencing circuit means connected to a pluralityof indicator lights onsaid machine to guide the operator of the machine in the correctsequence by illuminating indicator lights adjacent successive portionsof said card to indicate to the operator to enter data on that portionof the card into the memory with the keyboard, said sequencing circuitbeing activated by the manual selection of the category of data with aswitch, by the operation of the manual switch for some of the precedingfunctions in the sequence, and by the completion of the other precedingfunctions.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 including empty charactercounting meansconnected to said data accepting means and to said gating means so as topass data from said main memory to said printing means if all theentries on the card are empty.

1. A data logging and organizing machine operable to accept data from acard which has address information characters printed in writtenlanguage and in machine readable encoded dot patterns on one portionthereof and numerical hand entered data on another portion and furtheroperable to return that data in organized categories selected by theoperator comprising in combination: data accepting means comprising anoptical reader adapted to automatically reCord said address informationcharacters and keyboard input connected to feed data in with saidaddress information; memory storage means comprising a main electronicrecycling type memory coupled to a final permanent tape memory so as totransfer data thereto, said memory storage means connected to said dataaccepting means; a tape control circuit operable to return the datarecorded on the tape back into said main memory; a parameter memoryconnected to said main memory to accept data therefrom in response tothe operation of said tape control circuit; a printing means; comparingmeans comprising a comparator connected to said main and parametermemories so as to compare address information characters in the twomemories and also connected to a gating means between said main memoryand said printing means so as to gate data from said main memory intosaid printing means when the address characters do not disagree with thecorresponding address characters in the parameter memory; sequencingcircuit means connected to a plurality of indicator lights on saidmachine to guide the operator of the machine in the correct sequence byilluminating indicator lights adjacent successive portions of said cardto indicate to the operator to enter data on that portion of the cardinto the memory with the keyboard, said sequencing circuit beingactivated by the manual selection of the category of data with a switch,by the operation of the manual switch for some of the precedingfunctions in the sequence, and by the completion of the other precedingfunctions.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1 including empty charactercounting means connected to said data accepting means and to said gatingmeans so as to pass data from said main memory to said printing means ifall the entries on the card are empty.